Death
Death is an Enemy in Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. Overview Death is a shadowy figure shrouded in black found on Bitterblack Isle. Larger than many creatures in the realm, he hovers ominously above the ground. Death's hood hides no facial features—instead, only a gaping black hole looks back at the Arisen. His deadly scythe, larger than his own body, will instantly kill even the mightiest adventurers. The Bone Lantern held in his left hand allows him to cast Sleep. Death in the Dragon's Dogma universe shares many of the same features as the Grim Reaper in popular mythological depictions. Attacks Behaviour Death will flee when enough damage has been inflicted, or after a certain length of time fighting him. Any damage inflicted on Death will carry over to every subsequent encounter until he is slain. As the physical manifestation of the cessation of life, Death cannot be permanently slain and will eventually reappear to resume his hunt for living prey. In some areas, Death will disappear if the party simply exits and re-enters the dungeon. Death will also sometimes leave after slaying pawns or after a Wakestone is used. Tactics Defensive *Lower level or unprepared parties will have little chance of harming Death on their first encounters - a valid option here is to run ! *Prepare for Death's sleep spell. Either with resistant armor, clothing and rings, or with spells and curatives. **See Sleep for curatives and sleep resistant items. Restless Earrings and the Leather Circlet are readily available items with powerful resistance. Additionally, any spell or item granting the state of Impervious will completely protect against sleep - particularly useful is Sobering Wine which protects the entire party. ** Certain skills which give a brief window of invincibility, such as a correctly timed Full Moon Slash, will protect the Arisen from Death's Sleep attack. *Death's scythe attack cannot be blocked with any shield or countered by any parry, including Masterful Kill or Clairvoyance. The scythe can only be avoided by evading it completely. ** Autonomy augment can be useful as pawns are often slain by Death's scythe. ** Wakestones can resurrect the Arisen, but Death's scythe will kill pawns instantly with no option for revival. Pawns will be immediately sent to the Rift and must be rehired. *Death floats above the ground and his incorporeal form cannot be grappled. *Beware of Death's ability to teleport - if Death disappears, he may well now be behind you. * Death will be strongly attracted to the light of any lantern. To avoid Death's attention, make sure no lanterns are lit. * There is a small blindspot just behind Death when he swings his scythe. * For lower level players looking to avoid Death, whilst he's at large, a low, ominous bell tolling will be heard as well as whispers the closer one gets to Death. Prepare to make a break for it when these sounds are heard. Offensive (but with 51 levels of Strider) locks Death in a knockdown animation.]] *Pawns often comment: "Death cannot be slain in one go." - Death has a great deal of health, and is intended to be fought over a number of separate encounters. * Immune to all debilitations. * Can be knocked down or staggered. *Usually Death retreats after a certain amount of time or damage - however if the creature can be kept staggered or knocked down), he can be defeated in one go - potentially effective techniques for 'stunlocking' Death include either: multiple Blast Arrows; a Magick Archer's Magickal Radiance; or Ricochet Hunter in an enclosed space like The Bloodless Stockade. Vocation specific (130 Blast Arrows) fortified by four Salomet's Secrets and four Tagilus's Miracles plus a Sobering Wine to stagger and slay Death in the Garden of Ignominy (Hard Mode).]] Death has high defense and high health, and appears only for a limited period of time - to dispatch Death, each vocation should preferably use their strongest attacks, coupled with enchantments and potions. * (All vocations) To maximize the Arisen's or party's damage output, use four instance of the Invigorations of Strength Boosted and or Magick Boosted - this should more than double the power of attacks, and in many cases be the difference between doing high or no damage. (More than four of each give no further benefits.) * Striders: Skull/Brain Splitter coupled with a prior jump and the Eminence augment is probably the best dagger based attack. Ranged attacks could include Downpour/Hailstorm Volley, or Splinter/Fracture Dart (also effectively used by pawns). * Rangers: Tenfold Flurry shots cause good damage - with Blast Arrows and high enough knockdown/stagger stats, Death can be stunlocked. * Warriors: For most weapons use jumping Light Attacks with as many strength boosting augments and potions as possible. *All Magick users - Death's high Elemental resistances and high Magick Defense generally make the use of multiple instances of the Invigoration of Magick Boosted necessary to do significant damage. Magick Boosting Augments will also help. ** Magick Archers: Try Ricochet Hunter in close quarters; otherwise the detonation of Explosive Bolt/Volley have higher stagger and knockdown. (Note that when Death teleports, he will free himself of any attached explosive rivets. ) ***Magickal Gleam can also stun an unaware Death, allowing time to strike or run past him. ** Mystic Knights: An Arisen can easily use the Reaper's teleport skill against him, providing they have the ability Stone Jungle. With this skill, an Arisen may cast from afar and hold the spell, awaiting Death as he teleports close. Once he does, using this magick will have a high chance to knock the Reaper down, allowing a party to deal massive amounts of damage. Otherwise a combination of multiple Great Cannon and Ruinous Sigils can be used both as an offense, and as a trap should Death teleport or move to their location. ** Mages and Sorcerers: though Focused Bolts can be effective, the low scaling with magick power may make these skills ineffective for all but the strongest magick users. History Death was once an Arisen. The notice board quests The Wages of Death I, II, III, and IV, were written by Death. In The Wages of Death IV, he states, "I have cast away the shackles of the Arisen. In form and function, I have embraced my calling... as death." Speculation suggests that Death is the twisted form of Arthacos, an Arisen driven insane by loneliness and the unending labyrinth of Bitterblack Isle. In his insanity, Arthacos came to believe that it was his duty to offer one thousand human sacrifices to appease the Dragon's destructive nature and to save his country from calamity. He continues his vigil to this day. Arthacos' accounts can be found in the form of ten epitaphs scattered through the isle, which when collected are displayed at the Monument of Remembrance. The tone and style of these epithets is similar to The Wages of Death I, II, III, and IV, which suggests that Arthacos and Death (who authored the Wages quests) are one and the same. Pawn Bestiary Knowledge *Witness the scythe attack (no victim needed) *Witness Death inflicting Sleep *Witness Death bow and flee (may need to be seen a few times) *Teleportation : **Witness Death teleport in front of a character with a lantern equipped **Witness Death teleport in front of a character with no lantern equipped **Both may be needed to be witnessed several times **It may be necessary to equip/unequip the party's lanterns during the fight for the associated flags to be triggered. *Kill Death at least once with all five previous flags triggered In addition to witnessing these techniques, it is necessary for Pawns to participate in killing Death 3, 6 or more times either with their own Arisen or while travelling with others. More information can be found at the Bestiary page. Pawn Chatter :"Death is come!" :"A reaper of souls?!" :"The reaper comes, Arisen!" :"There, a light... Someone's lamp, perhaps?" :"Hold fast, and drive this evil back!" :"The fiend's scythe brings certain death!" :"'Tis the end if its scythe finds you asleep!" :"When the lantern shines, fall back at once!" :"Its lantern's magick lulls men to sleep!" :"Seems it's gone..." :"Death will not be slain in one go, ser." Quotes Whilst casting the lantern sleep spell :"Sleep..." Before a scythe swing. :"Come my child." :"Waver no more." Notes *The Brine cannot slay Death. *Death's scythe will instantly kill most Bitterblack Isle enemies - Cursed Dragons, Condemned Gorecyclops, etc. However any such enemy slain by Death will not drop loot nor award experience. *Death's scythe cannot kill Golems , Metal Golems and Dragonkin (except from Cursed Dragons). *As expected, Death's scythe doesn't affect undead in the slightest. *In Hard Mode, Death has considerably more stagger and knockdown resistance. *Firing a Maker's Finger will not slay Death, but it will wipe out one full health bar. *Mages wielding Legion's Might are not immune to Death's scythe. *It has been claimed that Death's 'weak spot' is his lantern, particularly for stagger; however, others claim the lantern is actually unhittable, and hits to the lantern are actually passing through the body and hitting the torso. It is not known if any part of Death's body represents a true weak spot. * Knocking down Death over an abyss will slay him outright - Death can be slain during his initial (scripted) appearance at the Fortress of Remembrance by being knocked off the bridge into the abyss below. Strike with a ranged attack sufficiently strong to cause knockdown and Death will tumble to his doom. * When Death spawns in the Garden of Ignominy, if the player walks onto the balcony, Death will try to attack the player but will get stuck on the way (where Snakes (Pre-Daimon) or Leapworms (Post-Daimon) spawn). If players stay away from the lantern light and have no light source of their own, Death will stay there and do nothing. * It is possible to "farm" Death at certain locations, either for experience or loot - for details see Farming exploits § Death. Videos How to Stun-lock Death in the Garden of Ignominy (Post-Daimon)|A level 51 Assassin (but with 51 levels of Strider) locks Death in a knockdown animation. Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen - MK vs. 2 Frostwyrms & Death in Sparyard of Scant Mercy, on Hard Mode. Dragons Dogma Death Farming - Magic Archer|Death farming in the Forsaken Cathedral. File:Death slain with one shot (Ranger technique)|Wielding a Revenant Wail and two Barbed Nails, the Arisen fires a single Tenfold Flurry with 10 Blast Arrows to stagger Death into falling into the abyss below. File:Death slain with one shot (Magick Archer technique)|Wielding a Blackwing Bow, the Arisen waits for Death's appearance animation to end before firing a single Magickal Radiance to stagger Death into falling into the abyss. Magickal Gleam can also produce this result. External Links *Official website (archived) Category:Dark Arisen: Enemies Category:Dark Arisen: Necrophages Category:Dark Arisen: Bosses Category:Exploits